I’ve been looking closely at tool marketing images, and it’s started to become a general habit.
Dewalt tool boxes usually have smeared-on dirt and mud, to show you that they’re resistant to dust and weather.
It stands out at times, but I don’t think it’s a big deal. It plays into the “jobsite tough” theme.
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Most people don’t realize it, but Dewalt puts a LOT of effort and attention into their product imagery, with application examples always depicting proper safety gear.
It might look a little awkward, but Makita’s depiction of a compact drill being used with a two-hand-grip is “by the book.”
Many tool brands include related tools in product application images.
Some brands mess up, such as how Greenworks shows a drill with a misaligned hammer drill or rotary hammer bit reaching into a populated electrical box.
I was looking at a meat grinding attachment for a KitchenAid stand mixer, and the images are a mix of neat and sloppy.
Here, the grinder is staged in a way to show meat being prepped for hamburgers.
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On the right, there are fixings, with a couple of onion rings and bunch of tomato slices spilled onto the countertop.
The countertop appears to be clean, but is it “eat off of it” clean?
There’s also a butter knife with honey mustard or some other gooey-looking spread, and it’s laid down right on the counter. That’s supposed to go on food?
Some countertops are clean enough to eat or prepare food off of. But this one?
The KitchenAid metal meat grinder attachment has a “larger food tray” that “processes more ingredients in 1 batch.” But somehow there’s still ground up pepper and some kind of leafy herb straight on the countertop.
There’s a bowl for meat, another for seasoned meat, and 3 more for chopped ingredients. But then there’s onion and herb chunks spilled on the countertop.
Why?
This is just sloppy, right?
Bowls with ingredients on the cutting board, and loose ingredients spilled onto the countertop.
A little mud splashed onto a tool box seems benign in comparison.
In this one, there’s whole fruit (cranberries?), ground up fruit, orange and apple slices, and spilled sugar on the countertop.
Making sausages? Don’t forget to throw some onion pieces, peppers, and cut-up herbs on the countertop!
Blending some juice? Spill some sugar on the cutting board and fruit on the countertop.
A while back I posted about some ridiculous stock image choices. What’s being advertised here?
Seriously – can you guess?
See Also: Amazon Guessing Game: What Tool are They Selling?
Separately, looking up at a ceiling while doing something with a screwdriver? Major tool brands would keep the hard hat (or swap it for a helmet), and add in safety glasses.
Anyone in the market for a “badass” tool cart that you “buy once, cry once” over?
Walmart keeps targeted me on social media, with ads for “all my favorite things.”
Apparently they think I’m in the market for a cervical range of motion assessment set.
Dove keeps targeting me on Reddit for whole body deodorant.
The ads are auto-playing, and were on every page I visited for a day or two.
They’re calling it “Whole Body Deo.”
Deo.
Thankfully, Dove didn’t include any application images.
Temu says “Don’t worry this is free. Seal the steal with a free gift.”
Nope. I have deep reservations about Temu.
Sanwa-America has a clever ad – “this is no Fluke. 80 years making premium multimeters in Japan.”
I’m not familiar with the brand, but the “no Fluke” double-meaning wins them some points. Or at least I’m assuming it’s supposed to have a double meaning.
As Fluke is highly well-regarded, “no Fluke” could have negative connotations.
The ad grabbed my attention and inspired me to learn more. Mission accomplished.
A “sleep aid for gamers.”
The company says that “Cutscene is perfect for… filthy casuals, hardcore sweats, content creators.”
There are also gaming pills.
Gaming pills…
Let me get this straight. Stand on a beam that spans a gap in the floor, and then cut it in half with a mini chainsaw?
When you see ads like this, they’re almost always selling the same no-name tools that you can buy on Amazon (I wouldn’t), but at 2X to 3X the price “on sale for a limited time.”
According to this Milwaukee Tool ad, you can use their Sawzall pruning blades on tree roots and stumps.
And… they’re absolutely right! These work a lot better than general purpose demo blades, even those with carbide teeth.
Milwaukee’s carbide-tooth pruning blades are fantastic.
I wish I saw these ads a few years ago – I would have worn out fewer blades.
Around 2 years ago, I came across this Greenworks ad where they claim to be the “most awarded brand in outdoor equipment.”
Really?
Greenworks ran multiple ads making the same claim.
I sometimes run into eyebrow-raising signage in stores.
Lowe’s had a Dewalt PowerStack-centered display where they made some bold claims.
Among other things, Lowe’s was claiming that they carry “more Dewalt power tools and accessories in-store than any other national home improvement retailer.”
Ah, here’s the teeny tiny fine print. It says this is based on “the total number of point-of-sale core SKUs of power tools and accessories (including batteries and chargers, excludes outdoor products) offered at brick-and-mortar USA locations only, measured as of November 29, 2021.
Home Depot has Dewalt’s Atomic line of cordless power tools. Does that not count as “core SKUs”? What about FlexVolt tools, which also aren’t available at Lowe’s?
Power tool accessories includes screwdriver bits, right? Lowe’s carries two lines of Dewalt bits – FlexTorq and Tough Grip. Does that inflate their count of power tool accessories?
Excluding cordless outdoor products?
Lowe’s ad didn’t give me good vibes.
Buy a pellet grill blind box for $399 for “a pellet grill worth up to $699”?
How many people are getting their money’s worth, and how many aren’t?
Is there really a market for $399 mystery grills?
What’s a “Flaming River Big Switch and Lever Kit”?
This was a focused Amazon ad on social media (Instagram).
Amazon also paid money to advertise floppy disks.
These are high density Verbatim Microdisks, 10 per pack, each with a whopping 1.44 MB of storage capacity.
I’ve learned to forgive a bit of extra dirt smeared on a tool box.
Hon Cho
You clearly do not do enough to obfuscate your internet searches and identity to keep them from feeding you the kind of stuff you see.
Algorithmic marketing doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to result in incremental benefits more than the incremental cost, hence we get lots of seemingly weird stuff thrown at us.
Yes, 1.44mb floppy disks being marketed in 2024 is especially weird.
Stuart
I started taking ad and sponsored post screenshots maybe 2 years back. Still, floppy disks in the 2020’s aren’t something any company should be actively advertising. That’s not a “I didn’t know I needed that” type of product.
Grokew
True, that’s more of a, “Hey nice, now I don’t need to modify my old Yamaha workstation. ” Type of product. Haha
S
I don’t know, many older cnc mills use floppy disks for programing, as do some digital musical instruments.
If you had worked through your batch of floppies that were the last of inventory elsewhere , knowing anyone had more could be beneficial.
MM
There are some niche applications that still use floppies, a lot of older pieces of lab/analytical equipment use them too. So I can see a market for them still. As recently as 2015 or so I was still insisting on putting floppy drives in the work computers I built and people around me thought that was nuts. I can understand that some people want floppies. But they absolutely are niche uses, to the point that actively marketing them online seems odd–unless, perhaps, the algorithm thinks that Stuart has a bunch of old hardware? It already seems to think he has a drag race car.
A W
As a safety guy, I love the chainsaw ad!
It makes me want to never use it between my legs.
Stuart
Don’t put it in your pocket either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpl0UDKY-vw
Scott K
I’d like to see a video version of that chainsaw ad…
ColeTrain
I got a Flaming River big switch, it’s awesome, it came inside my mystery grill box.
TomD
Heh there ad gods chose to give me a crypto ad, a Milwaukee ad, some weird jeep wannabe golf cart, and an online degree ad with this post.
1 out of 4 ain’t bad.
Stuart
The Milwaukee ad is the same for everyone, the others are Google’s ad network.
I rarely see anything egregious, but when I do I block them site-wide.
Funny story – someone once yelled at me for indecent ads. It turned out their wife was shopping for athletic wear on their shared computer, or something like that.
Rog
Having spent many years in CPG and food/bev marketing those Kitchen Aid shots are intentionally messy to show approachability. That space has gone hard into “realism” vs the perfect, studio polished shots that had been the norm. It’s attainable yet still aspirational
Stuart
I considered that, but the staging falls apart with the least bit of scrutiny.
To me, approachability would be hamburgers that aren’t perfectly flat or round.
Rog
I can also guarantee there were wayyy too many “chefs” in that kitchen, each one with an opinion that needed satiated.
Jack D
Those scream an attempt at “abundance” imagery, overflowing bowls, piles of tomatoes so high they topple, like that. Not saying they did a good job at it, but there you have it.
As a side note, are there more images in this post that I’m not seeing? Mention of a chainsaw ad but no image on my end…
Ray
That Dove deodorant is strong enough for a man but made for a metrosexual.
MM
The Flaming River device is a battery disconnect switch used for race cars. It’s a safety device so anyone can disconnect the battery in the case of an emergency, thereby shutting down the ignition, fuel pump, etc, designed to be easily accessible from outside the car.
What bugs me about the mud photos isn’t that they do it in the first place, but that it sticks out when it is done poorly. Some mud splatter, sawdust, etc, here and there makes things look realistic, the same way a little food might get spilled on a counter. But when the mud is quite obviously wiped directly onto the toolbox rather than looking like what might naturally accure from use on dirty jobsites? That’s where it looks fake and staged. The mud on the Dewalt pic at the top of this article looks like fingerpaint, none of the “kichen mess” photos look like that.
Christian Reed (REEKON)
DeWalt does a remarkable job with their branding and product imagery. Their in context use combined with the tool always showing signs of use and wear are tastefully executed and certainly something that, at least we, look aspirational towards as a great example of brand cohesion and secondary/tertiary levels of theme communication.
Dave
Most brands can be annoying, but I especially notice Milwaukee. Was just looking at a page for the 6-gallon vac. Whose idea was it to have “max power” and “max runtime” modes? What’s wrong with a simple “high” and “low?”
Derek
Dyson has something similar
Stuart
Not everyone makes the direct connection that high = more power and low = longer runtime.
Judging from online user reviews, many see the modes as weaker performance and “why’s the battery drain so quickly?” Explicitly setting one’s expectations could potentially lead to more satisfied users, or less unreasonably dissatisfied ones.
Low power meaning longer runtime is a positive attribute, rather than diminished performance.
Building upon what Derek mentioned, my Dyson cordless vac has “high suction, extended run” and “max suction” settings.
Potato
Do you not clean your countertops before food prep? The kitchenaid stuff is very, very nitpicky to me.
Stuart
Not if I’m using a cutting board and prep bowls.
Do you eat off your kitchen table, or use a plate?
Badger12345
I have some culinary training, though I never worked as a professional chef. Food safety is a big part of training. We were taught to make sure all prep surfaces were “clean” before getting started as a matter of practice. Always and without exception. When in doubt, do it again. Pastry chefs and pasta makers do much of their work directly on a counter. Stainless steel and quartz are preferred working surfaces because they are considered impervious. (Not for cutting of course.) I make big meals fast and safe. My kitchen ends up a bigger mess than what is seen in those Kitchenaid pictures, but is cleaned up spotless afterwards. If you’re not making a mess, then you are working too slow and wasting time.
Stuart
I definitely see your point.
With young kids at home, I don’t consider any kitchen surface to be clean and sanitized unless it has just been cleaned and sanitized. The same with the kitchen table.
Potato
Countertops that are used for food prep are always cleaned before any actual work is started. With most dough related things, you would need a comically large cutting board to cover the entire work area for kneading or shaping dough. As a rule bowls or boards are used for everything else, but if something touches the countertop I know it’s no big deal because it was clean prior to working.
If you are just cutting one apple sure I can see the argument for not cleaning. But if you are making something that involves your entire workspace as those adverts show, a few mins of extra time to clean is a small additional step for general food safety.
James
I just came home from some old man sports, parked in the driveway, opened this (I was reading the comments from the Irwin Jack), and laughed out loud several times. Thank you.
Maurice
Some great responses.
This site really needs ability to add reactions/emoticons to comments 😉
Jon
I’ve learned to tune out this stuff. It’s everywhere, it’s adnnoying.
The fresh food next to raw meat is the stupid part.
AlexK
How could I have lived around other people for 62 years without ever putting deodorant “down there”? Why didn’t anyone tell me that was a “thing”. Did I go thru life being mocked behind my back? Surely someone, perhaps a very short person would have told me I smelled down there.
Wayne R.
Well, how many of those new deodorants just came out in the last few weeks? Lots.
IronWood
The DeWalt smeared mud and Kitchenaid counters are irritating for the same reason. Yes, people get their boxes dirty and spill things on the counter in real life. But the ads are clearly manufactured messes and you know they were basically created to fool you. It’s kind of like the uncanny valley phenomenon in robotics, where the more natural they try to make it look, the more uncomfortable it makes you feel. I don’t understand why ad companies don’t just hand out samples to tradespeople and then borrow them back for a photo shoot after a few weeks of actual use.
The other end of the spectrum is the Greenworks ad, where some photoshop tech or AI was too lazy to even line up the drill bit. That’s just hack work and it irritates me because I don’t trust people/companies that accept shoddy hack work.
Derek
As someone in marketing in a 5,000ish person company, we’ve now got very strict brand and image guidelines to use. The problem is we’re in loads of different industries so the guidelines make it difficult.
I would bet SBD did studies and found people were complaining about how clean the tools were. They probably make Dewalt tools dirty since they’re aimed at contractors and keep Black and Decker clean since it’s homeowner focused.
Wayne R.
Was watching a YouTube video of guys pulling a greasy transmission out of an old nasty truck, then get a commercial for diapers. Or makeup.
Jared
That Vyper tag line still rubs me the wrong way. “Buy once, cry once” is like admitting they’re charging you too much for the cart – but claiming “at least it won’t suck”. That’s all you can promise me?
With Greenworks, their ads give you a hint about what to expect from the tools. It’s like “we didn’t bother to check whether the ad was realistic and you can expect the same care and attention when into these tools”. Yes, I realize the OPE line is decent, but their 24v stuff is junky. That’s a brand I skip entirely.
I appreciate the brands that bother to use the tools correctly, put safety gear on their models and at least attempt to achieve realism. I will forgive a little fake mud.
ITCD
I’m familiar with Sanwa, I have one. Pretty decent little meter even for being on the lower end of their offerings. Their wording is definitely a coin flip on how it’ll be taken, but I will say that their high-end models (made in Taiwan, while the lower are Japan proper) are every bit as good as Fluke while also costing less, and sometimes even having better features. They seem to love dual-readout displays in the Japanese market with the high end offerings from Sanwa and others having it, where your big readout will be say VAC while the smaller readout will be the Hz. They also have data links on their higher end stuff (cord and software sold separately), and unlike Fluke who wants another like $50 to give you a magnet to hang it from, Sanwa just includes it (doubles as a dust cover for the data link).
I can’t stand Milwaukee’s marketing though at least when it comes to the packaging. Always straight to hyperbole with words like best and most liberally slathered everywhere.
Wayne R.
Was just looking at images of the Sanwa PM33A. Looks like a good practical design – anyone use one?
Mr. C
Marketing is propaganda, and it’s usually all a lie (or extreme stretching of the truth) — explicitly, intentionally designed to separate you from your hard-earned money.
They’d gleefully promise the world, with the intent to sell their own grandmother into a MLM cult for an increase in their quarterly profits. That’s just how the system works.
I’m not saying the alternatives are any better, but this is a side effect of mostly-unregulated American-style Capitalism. As distasteful as it is, we have to acknowledge and accept it, as the reality we live in. Anything less than that is self-deception and delusions.
And it’s a system where we need to be aware that we’re being lied to/misled/misdirected, all the time, from nearly all sources. Not just adverts, but adverts-in-disguise. Like social media posts, product reviews, mainstream media news, etc.
It’s a rarity (and a breath of fresh air) to find someone who doesn’t fall into their trap, and calls them out on it. And please take no offense by this — it doesn’t grant this site a perpetual get-out-of-jail-free card. I’ll continue to be skeptical of everything, always. Though Stuart here is on the good side, not playing by their rules.
TonyT
If you get algorithms “hacked” just right, you can get some pretty good ads on Instagram. Some of the more interesting ones I’ve gotten include:
– Laser Focus World, Automation World, and other trade magazines
– EmbeddedExpert-IO, ST, NXP, and other embedded or IC companies
– Cripsmanufacturing (not even sure exactly what they’re advertising , and they’re not the only ones)
– various robotics companies including Standard Bots and Universal Robotics
– various 3D printer companies
I think clicking or hovering over ads that are interesting helps to see more of them, and fewer annoying ads.
Stuart
I get all kinds of industrial ads at times. Not industrial supplies, but huge infrastructure-type equipment.
Rx9
This reminds me that masterpiece stock photo of the woman holding a soldering iron by the heated end.
Rx9
Reminds me *of*.
eddie sky
Once I see HDR images in ads, I move on. Nothing in real life looks like that. Nothing.